Come out from among them
“Therefore, come out from among them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty” (NLT) 2 Corinthians 6:17-18
Jehovah God is holiness-personified. His divine nature is that of purity. Scripture makes us to understand that God cannot behold sin in comfort because He is pure (Read Habakkuk 1:13). During the Mosaical dispensation, the LORD Almighty, through his servant Moses made it clear to the Israelites His ordinances on holiness. There were detailed regulations on holiness in probably all the facets of their national life (Read Exodus 20 to Leviticus 25). The Israelites were required by God to be holy because God had made them special:
“For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be His own special treasure” (NLT) Deuteronomy 7:6.
Even among the Israelites, God chose the Levites for the priestly duties (Read Numbers 18), and among the Levites, He chose Aaron, his sons and his entire family for duties connected with the sanctuary and offenses connected with the priesthood (Numbers 18:1). Now, if anyone will bring God’s name into disrepute, it should not come from his chosen people. That is why His fury burnt against Nadab and Abihu when they disobeyed Him (Leviticus 10:2). It was true what Moses told Aaron afterward:
“Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD meant when he said, ‘I will display my holiness through those who come near me. I will display my glory before all the people.’” (NLT) Leviticus 10:3
We are now in the Christian dispensation, under a new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6) and we are the chosen of God:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (NIV) 1 Peter 2:9
Has God’s requirements for holiness changed because we have received a new covenant? Certainly not! We are strongly admonished in 1 Corinthians 10:1-10 to desist from all kinds of unholiness if we want to escape the wrath of God:
“These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NLT)